Did you see that "trowel"?

It looks like a big hunting knife. I garden, I have an allotment and grow all sorts for years, I've never seen a trowel that looks anything like that before.

Sure, maybe it's some specialised sharp knife-like trowel from Asia that nobody here has seen before, but that is exactly why it's reasonable to assume it's a knife, first and foremost.

I also heard the guy was dressed like he was cosplaying being in the army (in camo), but that may not be the case. It would make one further suspicious of him though, if it is true.

A guy walking around with a big sharp "trowel" in (to joe public) a green tactical looking holster thingy, wearing army camo? Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bloke going down the allotment to tend to the cabbages.

Obviously it was a misunderstanding in the end, but at the same time, I can 100% understand why the fuzz would make some safe assumptions to disarm someone of their potentially deadly weapon.

The bloke can't have been stupid either, he was carrying the very weapon like thing visibly in public, and when the bobbies asked him to drop it he acted like he had no clue what they were on about? Come on.

I could understand buying and using a trowel that's weird like that, if that's what you're into, but it's common sense that it looks like a weapon and should obviously be concealed as to not worry joe public. Especially if you're planning to go around wearing army clothes or whatever, but even so.